Freedom (NASDAQ:FRHC) versus Applied Digital (NASDAQ:APLD) Head to Head Analysis

Freedom (NASDAQ:FRHC) and Applied Digital (NASDAQ:APLD) are both mid-cap finance companies, but which is the superior investment? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their profitability, dividends, institutional ownership, earnings, analyst recommendations, risk and valuation.

Valuation and Earnings

This table compares Freedom and Applied Digital”s gross revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Freedom	$2.05 billion	4.03	$84.65 million	$0.02	6,755.50
Applied Digital	$144.19 million	66.49	-$231.07 million	($0.74)	-45.34

Freedom has higher revenue and earnings than Applied Digital. Applied Digital is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Freedom, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Analyst Ratings

This is a breakdown of current ratings and recommmendations for Freedom and Applied Digital, as reported by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Freedom	1	0	0	0	1.00
Applied Digital	2	0	11	2	2.87

Freedom presently has a consensus target price of $138.00, indicating a potential upside of 2.14%. Applied Digital has a consensus target price of $44.33, indicating a potential upside of 32.14%. Given Applied Digital’s stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, analysts plainly believe Applied Digital is more favorable than Freedom.

Profitability

This table compares Freedom and Applied Digital’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Freedom	0.13%	0.21%	0.03%
Applied Digital	-52.84%	-15.91%	-4.62%

Volatility & Risk

Freedom has a beta of 0.72, suggesting that its stock price is 28% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Applied Digital has a beta of 5.7, suggesting that its stock price is 470% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Insider & Institutional Ownership

1.3% of Freedom shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 65.7% of Applied Digital shares are held by institutional investors. 70.0% of Freedom shares are held by insiders. Comparatively, 9.5% of Applied Digital shares are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, hedge funds and endowments believe a company is poised for long-term growth.

Summary

Freedom beats Applied Digital on 8 of the 15 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Freedom

Freedom Holding Corp., through its subsidiaries, provides securities brokerage, securities dealing, market making, investment research, investment counseling, and investment banking services. It offers retail brokerage services for exchange-traded and over-the-counter corporate equity and debt securities, money market instruments, exchange traded options and futures contracts, government bonds, and mutual funds; securities trading; underwriting services; margin lending services collateralized by securities and cash in the customer’s account; various investment education and training courses; investment research services; and commercial banking services, including payment cards, digital mortgages, and digital business and digital auto loans, as well as Freedom Box, a package of payment acquiring services. The company also provides capital raising solutions for corporate clients through initial public offerings and follow-on offerings; and debt capital markets solutions that focuses on structuring and distributing private and public debt for various purposes, including buyouts, acquisitions, growth capital financings, and recapitalizations, as well as information processing services. In addition, it facilitates repurchase and reverse repurchase agreements in proprietary trading activities; and covers short positions and settle other securities obligations to accommodate customers’ needs and finance its inventory positions. Further, the company offers proprietary trading and investment services, as well as insurance products; and Tradernet software platform for client margin risk evaluation and middle office security transfer requests. It operates in Central Asia, Eastern Europe, rest of Europe, the United States, Russia, the Middle East, and Caucasus. The company was formerly known as BMB Munai, Inc. and changed its name to Freedom Holding Corp. Freedom Holding Corp. was incorporated in 1981 and is headquartered in Almaty, Kazakhstan.

About Applied Digital

Applied Digital Corporation designs, develops, and operates datacenters in North America. Its datacenters provide digital infrastructure solutions to the high-performance computing industry. The company also provides artificial intelligence cloud services, high performance computing datacenter hosting, and crypto datacenter hosting services. The company was formerly known as Applied Blockchain, Inc. and changed its name to Applied Digital Corporation in November 2022. Applied Digital Corporation is based in Dallas, Texas.